New Planned Parenthood Center in Queens Says ‘Welcome’ in Many Ways

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The recovery area in the new Diane L. Max Health Center of Planned Parenthood in Long Island City, Queens, designed by Stephen Yablon. Pastel colors and natural light are predominant.CreditCreditDanny Ghitis for The New York Times

In Long Island City, Queens, however, Planned Parenthood has created a bright new world: a health center where daylight streams in through large windows and skylights, where walls are painted in Easter-egg pastels, where a cheerful sign tells clients and patients that they are Welcome, Bienvenido, Byenveni, Malugod na pagtanggap, Добро пожаловать and 환영.

Because this is Queens, there are five other languages on the sign as well.

The Diane L. Max Health Center of Planned Parenthood opened in September at 21-41 45th Road, just steps away from the elevated No. 7 line station.

It is the first Planned Parenthood center in Queens. The organization now operates in every New York City borough. Abortions are performed at all but the Staten Island center, which offers family planning services only.

“Our other health centers are really full on a daily basis,” Diane L. Max, the chairwoman of Planned Parenthood of New York City, said. “We realized there was an untapped area of need.”

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Graphics spelling out words like “compassion” and “empowerment” in many languages adorn the staircases.CreditDanny Ghitis for The New York Times

Ms. Max said $9 million was raised to meet construction costs and create a fund to ensure that the center could provide services for at least three years without regard to patients’ ability to pay.

The center expects to see about 17,500 people a year. Other services include pregnancy tests, birth control counseling, gynecological care, cervical and breast cancer screening, and testing for H.I.V. and sexually transmitted infections.

In designing the two-story center within the shell of a former lumberyard structure, Stephen Yablon Architecture was given a seemingly self-contradictory mission.

“It was important to make it feel welcoming but protected,” Mr. Yablon said.

Natural light suffuses the rooms. Yet there is no getting away from possible peril. The windows of the waiting rooms, which face the street, are covered in translucent film. The glass is either bulletproof or bullet-resistant. The guarded vestibule has a magnetometer through which visitors must pass.

As they scouted locations, Planned Parenthood employees met with community groups in Queens. Meg Barnette, the chief of staff, recalled: “What we heard over and over was, ‘We really want you here, but not right here. I don’t want to run into my mother’s best friend.’”

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The main waiting room on the second floor of the Planned Parenthood center.CreditDanny Ghitis for The New York Times

Long Island City, just across the East River from Manhattan, offered convenience and — because of its remnant industrial character — anonymity.

It is also represented in the City Council by Jimmy Van Bramer, who wanted a Planned Parenthood center in his district.

“There has not been any opposition voiced about that health care facility,” he said on Tuesday, “and no protests outside of it.”

The organization needed a willing and cooperative landlord, which it found in Andrew Ebenstein. He took it upon himself to dismantle the existing structure to its reusable walls and floor slab.

At the groundbreaking in 2014, Mr. Van Bramer said, he wondered how Planned Parenthood was going to transform a utilitarian structure into a center “where women and men feel safe, secure and welcome.”

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The understated facade of the Planned Parenthood center at 21-41 45th Road, steps away from the elevated No. 7 line station.CreditDanny Ghitis for The New York Times

At the ribbon-cutting last year, he said, “I was really taken aback.”

“I was in awe how bright — even optimistic — a feeling that space gives,” he continued.

Though the words “Planned Parenthood” are prominent at the entrance, the understated facade of gray brick and blue tile does not stand out. The building sits on a lightly traveled block of small industrial buildings and rowhouses.

Visitors who are coming simply to pick up medication or contraceptives can transact business at a small pass-through window in the vestibule.

Those who have come for medical procedures are directed to a large waiting room that is partitioned for privacy. They are summoned to the clinical area by pagers they have been given, not by having their names called out.

In the examining rooms, wall-mounted computer monitors and keyboards enable staff members to converse with patients eye-to-eye while entering data.

Each room has a vividly colored wall, related to the color of a lighting strip in the corridor ceiling. The east staircase is green and the west staircase is blue. It makes for wordless orientation.

Besides color, Mr. Yablon said, simplicity was key to helping people from so many different cultures navigate the center.

For instance, rooms were not named “Procedure Room 1” or “Examining Room 2” but given three-digit designations in Arabic numerals.

Decorative signs that express values like “Respect,” “Care,” “Health” and “Empowerment” were rendered in 11 languages. But no effort was made to incorporate ethnic references in the overall design or décor.

“Artwork from different cultures would be a minefield,” Mr. Yablon said.

Planned Parenthood faces enough of those already.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: A New Planned Parenthood Center Says ‘Welcome’ in Many Ways. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe